Signed Early Day Motion 1080 drawing attention to the humanitarian catastrophe and power cuts in Gaza and calling on the government to urge Israel to lift its blockade immediately.

Asked in Parliament: “To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment the Government has made of the availability of electricity to Palestinians following the recent flooding in Gaza.”

2013

Signed Early Day Motion 498 calling for resumption of negotiations on Palestine-Israel, for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and for East Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state.

2012

Wrote to Communities Secretary to call for a change in the law to allow UK local authorities to ban companies from winning contracts if they had breached the law outside the EU. He referred to Veolia, which was then bidding for a Canterbury City Council contract, saying it had “been intimately involved in highly illegal activities in the occupied territories”.

Riled Zionist and settler groups by claiming in his letter to Eric Pickles that Israel’s activities were fuelling resentment against British troops in places such as Afghanistan. On meeting a delegation of aggrieved settlers, he told them: “The wall is built to take a substantial amount of Palestinian land away,” he said. “I do believe that the effect of the wall is an apartheid effect.”

Hosted in his office a meeting between ‘Bin Veolia’ campaigners and Veolia. He said: “Any fair-minded person would find it very hard to distinguish between a country doing wrong and a company’s involvement in it being wrong.”

2011

Called for UK government to “take very seriously the Palestinian bid for statehood” but while “calling for some conditions”.

Signed Early Day Motion 2135 calling for Palestine to be recognised by the UN as a sovereign state – but added that it should only apply to “Palestinian areas which accept the Quartet (EU, IMF, United Nations and World Bank) principles on governance and renouncing terrorism”.

Describes Israel’s blockade of Gaza as “brutal” in Parliament and said it was the cause of the creation of ‘smuggling tunnels’. Afterwards he issued a statement condemning Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla: “The shocking attack on the flotilla and deaths highlights how much a problem the blockage of Gaza is. The humanitarian situation is appalling and the plight of many Palestinians desperate following the Israeli demolition of much of the area last year. The Israelis are threatening the way of life of 1 million people living in the Gaza strip. Essential goods from building materials to medical supplies are mostly arriving only through Hamas-controlled smuggling. The Israelis should urgently lift the blockade of Gaza, and allow normal economic life to continue.”

2003

Asked in Parliament: “What steps the Government is taking to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal of illegal settlements”?